Cutie Q

Cutie Q is a block breaker video game intermixed with elements found in pinball tables. The player controls a set of paddles using a rotary dial, the objective is to score as many points possible by deflecting a ball against objects on the playfield - these include colorful "Rainbow Block" formations, pink ghosts known as "Minimon", spinners that slow down the ball, and small yellow creatures known as "Walkmen" that appear when an entire formation of blocks is destroyed.

The middle of the screen has a set of sad-faced rollover symbols, and touching them with the ball will instead make them turn happy — lighting all of them up increases the score multiplier. An extra ball is awarded by touching each of the lettered symbols found on both sides of the screen, or by having the ball collide with the green drainage blocks found at the bottom. Having the ball touch the bottom paddle will replace any cleared-out brick formations and increase the number of Minimon on the screen.

Cutie Q was developed and released by Namco in November 1979, following the release of Galaxian. The game was designed by Shigeru Yokoyama, known for his work on Galaga, while Toru Iwatani designed a number of the sprites. It is the third game in the Gee Bee trilogy, and much like its predecessors was the result of a compromise with Namco, who was disinterested in creating pinball machines. It was described as Namco's first "character game" for its use of cute, colorful characters, a design choice that had a major influence on Iwatani's next work, Pac-Man.

The name is derived from the band Creedence Clearwater Revival's cover of the song "Susie Q" from 1957, which Iwatani was a fan of. To help save manufacturing costs, Cutie Q was only sold as a conversion kit for older Gee Bee and Bomb Bee arcade units.

In their coverage of Namco Museum Vol. 2, Computer & Video Games called the game "brilliantly addictive" for combining the gameplay of Breakout and pinball tables, as well as for the inclusion of an "authentic" paddle controller to play it. In a retrospective, Earl Green of Allgame noted the game's importance to the creation of Pac-Man with its colorful character designs. Kristan Reed of Eurogamer was more negative, calling the game "rubbish" in his review of Namco Museum Remix, commenting that while the game was interesting for its historical value, said that players would only play it for a few minutes before becoming bored.

In 1987, nearly a decade after the release of Cutie Q, Namco released a similar block breaker game, Quester, in an effort to compete against Taito's Arkanoid — Iwatani was assigned as the project's producer. Although not directly related to the Gee Bee trilogy, the game's 26th stage is designed after a Rainbow Block Cutie Q. This game was ported to the Japanese Wii Virtual Console in 2009, renamed to Namco Quester.